Arlington school employees looking to become campus administrators will soon begin yearlong training as a part of a new partnership and a $1.3 million investment.

The school district partnered with the national nonprofit New Leaders for its Emerging Leaders program, which targets educators who want to be assistant principals and principals.

The district accepted final applications Friday from current assistant principals and employees who will receive master’s degrees and principal certifications by August 2015. Applicants are expected to know if they made the cut by the end of the month.

Those who are selected will participate in 90 minute webinars, two hours of in-person guided practice and two hours of in-person sessions each month. Participants will also work with their principals to lead a selected group of teachers throughout the year on how to build team relationship, address dysfunctions and have difficult conversations, according to literature.

The program is designed to teach employees how to increase effectiveness in adult, instructional, cultural and personal leadership, said Steven Wurtz, an elementary area superintendent who helped bring the Emerging Leaders program to Arlington.

Wurtz said participants will collaborate and bring assignments back to their respective campuses to work on.

“It’s really about shoring up and honing those skills,” Wurtz said.

It’s also good to have leaders at the ready so that when district vacancies become available, they can easily be transitioned into new roles.

“The goal is to establish a pipeline to campus leadership for people who are demonstrating leadership potential,” Wurtz said.

The program was paid for by Raise Your Hand Texas, a nonprofit education agency the district already works with.

“We recognize the critical role of human capital in building student achievement. Absent a higher salary structure for educators, the most powerful incentive to retain effective teachers is supportive leadership,” David Anthony, CEO of Raise Your Hand Texas, said in a statement.

Archie McAfee, executive director of the Texas Association of Secondary School Principals, said that the association doesn’t have data on retirement projections for principals and that the only way to gather it would be to “call every principal in the state and ask them when they are going to retire.”